We need forex to import petrol – Oil marketers

 Oil marketers on Friday called on the Federal Government to assist in making foreign exchange available for the importation of petroleum products.

The marketers said they had been finding it difficult to access dollar from secondary sources to enable them to import the products.
The marketers, under the umbrella of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, spoke during a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in Abuja.

The meeting, which was chaired by the minister, was attended by Chief Executive Officers of about 44 oil companies in Nigeria.

It was held to discuss salient issues affecting the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

Speaking during the opening session of the meeting, the Chairman of DAPPMAN, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, told the minister that members of the association were having a tough time converting some of the Naira payments made by the government to dollars.

Abiodun said while the oil marketers would continue to do their best in importing petroleum products into the country, the unavailability of foreign exchange might make it challenging to achieve such objective.

The Federal Government had last week paid the oil marketers a total of N48.2bn as the arrears of outstanding 2015 subsidy claims.

The amount, the Federal Ministry of Finance said, was to enable them to import petroleum products and meet their other financial needs.

While appreciating the ministry for the release of the fund, Abiodun said except the government intervened by asking the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide foreign exchange to oil marketers, the payment made by the government for fuel imports would be sitting in their respective Naira account.

He said, “We want to thank you for the recent payment of about N42bn which you made to us last week, but we want to emphasise the fact that this Naira payment will continue to sit in our banks

“We look forward to dialogue with you as to how you can help us expedite the sourcing of foreign exchange to liquidate these positions.”

The minister, in her response, said the Federal Government would continue to do its best to ensure availability of petroleum products in the county.

She expressed optimism that the reforms currently being implemented in the oil sector would restore confidence in the market.